Toshiba, Kerala Government Ink Deal For Making Lithium-Ion Batteries

The Toshiba Group on Thursday signed an Expression of Interest with the Kerala government for technology transfer and manufacturing lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries for electric vehicles, an announcement by the Chief Minister's Office said here.

The agreement is an outcome of the Japan visit by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the head of a high-level state delegation and was signed in Tokyo at the investment seminar organised in the Japanese capital as part of the visit.

Vijayan addressed the Kerala State Investment Promotion Seminar organised with the participation of 150 major Japanese investors at the Indian Embassy, Tokyo.

The Vijayan delegation, which includes two state Ministers and senior bureaucrats, will travel next to South Korea and is expected to return here on December 4.

This certainly seems to be in line with the Kerala Government's EV roadmap, according to which, the southern state plans to have 10 lakh electric vehicles plying on the road by 2022. The government had also announced that it will be putting in place a Rs. 12 crore e-mobility fund.

Among other initiatives to maximise the use of electric vehicles in the state, the government has also decided to replace the Kerala RTC buses with electric buses, and the shift will start from Thiruvananthapuram, whose State Road Transport Corporation has decided to make a complete switch during the next fiscal. The state also said it will give tax exemption and subsidy to electric autorickshaws.